Matchstick Falls

The falls are found below the highway at a large turnout on the west side of the Icefields Parkway 26 kilometers north of Saskatchewan Crossing and the David Thompson Highway. The falls are audible from the road with boot paths leading quickly to views from just downstream.Matchstick Falls is a small waterfall occurring along the North Saskatchewan River shortly downstream from the Alexandra River Trailhead, and directly across the street from Coleman Falls, along the Icefields Parkway in Banff National Park. The river constricts and drops about 20 feet into a narrow gorge carved out of a very unique layer of inverted stratified bedrock. Park at a large turnout on the west side of the Icefields Parkway, about 22 kilometers south of the Icefields Center. Coleman Falls will be seen up the hill to the left and Matchstick Falls down the hill to the right. Boot paths lead down to the river.We do not know this waterfall to have been historically named nor can we find any reference to a more colloquial title, so we have called it for the large pile of splintered logs which lay adjacent to the top of the falls due to the resemblance to a pile of broken matches.